Walmart Supercenter coming to downtown Sarasota

Monday

Nov 19, 2012 at 11:50 PM

By MICHAEL POLLICK

It's official: the world's biggest retailer will be invading the eastern edge of downtown Sarasota.

Whether that is good or bad probably depends on what an existing merchant sells. Some stores will be in direct competition with the big Arkansas-based conglomerate, while others may simply get a boost from the increased traffic Walmart's Supercenter is expected to bring.

Last week, city planners approved plans for the 98,000-square-foot Supercenter at the near-derelict Ringling Shopping Plaza, which Publix Super Markets vacated last year.

Walmart is expected to raze the existing center for its store, which will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Under Sarasota's zoning code, City Planning Board approval represented the final legislative hoop for the discount retailer, which expects to open its new store in about a year.

While half the size of most of the Walmart's typical Supercenters, the Ringling store will nonetheless loom large in its neighborhood in downtown Sarasota — where barber shops, laundromats and diners fill narrow strip centers along Ringling Boulevard and Lime Avenue — and perhaps beyond.

Though Walmart will be selling toys 1.1 miles away from her Toy Lab store on Main Street, and the chain's discount prices have made it a so-called "category killer," that often puts competitors out of business, Toy Lab owner Lynn Archibald says she is not worried.

When a Walmart store opened in 2006 on the west side of Chicago, for instance, toy stores and other nearby businesses within four miles suffered, according to a study by the Center for Urban Research and Learning at Loyola University Chicago.

"The relationship to distance was particularly strong for establishments in electronics, toys, office supplies, general merchandise, hardware, home furnishings and drugs," the study found.

"It is a different experience," said Archibald, at her store crammed with simple wooden toys to "screaming flying monkeys."

"This is Main Street and that is a box store," she said of Walmart.

"The little man can stay alive if he is good at it," said Archibald, who admits that she and her husband are Walmart fans. "It enables a lot of people to have things they otherwise could not have."

By entering the urban core, Wal-Mart Stores is following a well-defined new path, says John Fleming, spokesman for the Florida Retail Federation.

"For a long time, retailers were following the customers out to the suburbs. As people have started to come back into cities, retailers have started to relocate there," Fleming said. "So in general, it is a good thing. We are starting to see investment coming back."

Fleming passed on the question of whether the move will be good or bad for other merchants, saying it would be impossible to answer without knowing the exact circumstances.

A litmus test?

If proximity is the key, then the aging Colonial Village shopping center at Lime Avenue and Fruitville Road — anchored by a Save-A-Lot discount grocery — might be the litmus test.

Like the grocery store portion of the new Walmart, Save-A-Lot specializes in providing food bargains. That could put it in direct competition with the Supercenter a year from now.

A Save-A-Lot manager referred questions to a district manager, who could not be reached for comment.

But neighboring shop owners did not seem worried about losing their anchor.

Toni Bevier, whose family runs the Silver Star Restaurant a few doors south of Save-A-Lot, said the anchor's strength is fresh fruit and vegetables, which should help it cope with the competition.

Her co-workers, including her husband and chief chef Doug Bevier, insist on her buying certain produce at the Save-A-Lot.

"The pineapple is yummy. The avocados, we love them," Toni Bevier said. "I would die if they had to shut down. That would be a heart-breaker."

For her part, she thinks Walmart will be a boon for business at the Silver Star, which already is doing a brisk breakfast-and-lunch business.

"My motto here is once I get them through the door, they always come back," Bevier said.

Also benefitting from proximity to the Save-A-Lot is "The Corner Hair Stylist," owned by Rebeca Ortiz.

Like Ortiz, Bevier is a personal fan of Walmart and its low prices, and she is equally optimistic about the impact on her business once the retail behemoth arrives. Ortiz spins the scenario of a husband dropping his wife off at the Supercenter and thinking, "'My wife is in shopping, and I will get my haircut here,'" she said.

One of Ortiz's regular customers, 35-year Sarasota resident Ernie Rayburn, also is happy about the new Walmart store. He now drives to either Sweetbay or a Publix on U.S. 41, which requires traversing several big and busy intersections.

"I'll get over here at least three times faster than the Sweetbay," Rayburn said, adding that other customers will probably perceive the same benefits. "They'll be there not only for the groceries but all the other stuff."

The Rev. Jerome Dupree, a former Sarasota city commissioner and mayor who was heading into the Save-A-Lot on Monday, said he thinks his favorite grocery can handle the competition.

"I like this store because you get some marvelous bargains," Dupree said, noting a six-pack of Salisbury steaks for "two dollars and something."

"You buy some mashed potatoes and vegetables and you can feed a whole family for five dollars."

'Traffic on Lime'

For Barbara Barone, who sells books — and used books, to boot — the new Supercenter can mean only good things for the area and her business.

Barone bases that assessment on the idea that Walmart is unlikely to get into the used books business anytime soon.

As a result, her Brant's Books — at 429 North Lime Ave., a few blocks due north of the future Supercenter — will benefit by a pickup in customer traffic.

She also figures that Lime Avenue, which has its own stoplight at Ringling Boulevard north of the Walmart parcel, will help put her store on drivers' mental maps.

"For me, it's a good thing," Barone said. "The benefit for me is more traffic on Lime."